Dominaria: What We Know
While official spoiler season for Dominaria doesn't start until the first of April and the set doesn't release until the end of next month, yesterday, due to a quirk of fate and some publishing errors, we had a massive leak of cards from the set, with nearly 150 of the 260 cards showing up in the leaked release notes. As such, our topic for today is what we know about the set based on the leak.
Before getting to the video, a couple of warnings. First, if you don't want to see Dominaria spoilers, you should avoid this video and article. While we aren't going in-depth into specific cards, we will be using some of the leaked cards as examples of themes and mechanics. Second, as I mentioned a moment ago, today's video is about the broad themes of Dominaria, so don't expect and in-depth discussion of individual cards, or what sweet Dominaria additions might show up in Standard or Modern. We've got quite a while until the set actually releases, so we have plenty of time to dig into the nuts and bolts of the set. Anyway, with these things in mind, let's break down what we know about Dominaria! If you want to view all the leaked card for yourself, you can check them out on the Dominaria spoiler page.
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Planeswalkers
- The planeswalkers of Dominaria represent some of the most iconic characters in Magic's history: Karn, Teferi and Jaya Ballard.
Mechanic: Saga
- Sagas are enchantments that do something as lore counters are added to them (both as they enter the battlefield and during your draw step). After the third lore counter is added and the final ability resolves the Saga is sacrificed.
Mechanic: Kicker
- Kicker gives you the ability to pay additional mana to get an additional effect. For example, you can cast Grunn, the Lonely King as a 5/5 for six, or you can cast it as a 10/10 for nine thanks to kicker.
Term: Historic
- Historic simply refers to artifacts, legendaries and Sagas.
Theme: Legendaries
- The primary theme of Dominaria is legendary cards. In fact, each and every pack of Dominaria will contain at least one legend! While many of the legends are creatures, there are other legendary permanents as well, along with legendary spells. While legendary cards are exciting in general, the abundance of legendary creatures makes Dominaria especially exciting for Commander players.
Theme: Legendary Sorceries
- Legendary sorceries are just like normal sorceries, except they can only be cast if you control a legendary creature or planeswalker.
Reprints
- Dominaria has a lot more reprints than most recent Standard sets.
- Included among the reprints are the enemy buddylands (or checklands) originally printed in Innistrad. Their introduction to Standard will complete the cycle since the allied versions were reprinted in Ixalan.
Theme: Callbacks
- Along with actual reprints, Dominaria features many callbacks and returning characters on new cards like Squee, the Immortal (referencing Squee, Goblin Nabob) and Knight of Malice (referencing Black Knight)
